Fred Connors to run for mayor of Halifax

Hairstylist, self-esteem and makeover expert, urban chicken farmer, and now Fred Connors wants to add "mayor of Halifax" to his resume.

The flamboyant and media-savvy Connors announced his candidacy for Halifax Regional Municipality’s top political position at an awards ceremony Thursday evening.

"I think this city needs a little bit more vision and I think this city needs to have a leader that is going to listen to the voices of the people who live here," Connors told thechronicleherald.ca after surprising a crowd at a Family SOS fundraising dinner in Halifax where he received an award for his community work.

"I care. I care about the city," he said later.

"I think it’s a great city and we spend far too much time focusing on what is wrong with this city, and I think it is time for us to focus on what is right with this city and what are possibilities and what is the potential that we as a city have."

Connors, 45, was honoured as Awards Ambassador by Family SOS at the sixth annual Courage to Give Back Awards at the Cunard Centre in Halifax.

He made his surprise announcement at the end of his award acceptance speech, in which he talked about growing up as a gay kid in a military family. When he announced his candidacy, the crowd cheered and gave him a standing ovation. The room was buzzing afterward.

Moments later, Connors issued a statement. In it, he is described as "a local success story; an entrepreneur with passion, involved with municipal government issues and active contributor to several community organizations."

Connors is a well-known personality around the city.

In 2004, he opened his self-named salon FRED on the corner of Agricola and North streets. The business is a combined salon, café and art gallery. The building had previously housed a Scotiabank branch, and at the time, Connors said he hoped his business would help re-energize Halifax’s north end.

Since then, Connors has gone on to work as a self-esteem and makeover expert on the Canadian television show X-Weighted.

"I’m very passionate about my community, and I don’t think of my community just as North and Agricola street, I think of it in terms of the city I live in," Connors said.

"I feel I can lend my voice, my ability and my passion to other communities in the HRM. There are people in communities all over this city who feel they are not being properly served or being properly represented and I certainly want to give those people a voice and I want those people to have a chance to talk about what they want from their city."

Connors said he has been thinking for months about running but hasn’t yet put together a big team of supporters or sought financial backing. He said he does have the support of his partner of 20 years, Joel Flewelling. The two are noted for raising chickens in their north-end backyard.

"I knew that if I was going to announce, it had to be something that I was going to do because I was passionate about and believe in and had faith that the support will follow," Connors said.

He said the downtown should be the heart of Halifax.

"We really need to develop a strategy to bring business back into the downtown," he said.

"We need to figure out a way to move people more efficiently within the downtown, and we need to develop a transit system and a system of active transport to be able to move people around better.

"I think we need to focus on creating small-business opportunities and be able to invite big business to Halifax and encourage talent to come back."

Connors, raised in Ottawa, is the son of a military officer and a social worker.

He said his vision for Halifax and downtown development would see the city become a source of design inspiration for the rest of the world.

"We need spaces and buildings that inspire people to want to be in them."

Connors is the first openly gay man to make a run at the region's top job.

"I'm not a politician's mayor but I definitely think I could make a really good people's mayor."

He may be in tough against a field that might also include former Liberal MP Mike Savage. Former Halifax police officer Tom Martin, taxi driver David Boyd and Dalhousie University student Matt Worona have also said they're running.

"I expect every fight to be a tough fight," he said.

"And if you don't expect that you're going to have a tough fight, you're probably not going to win."

He says he believes he has a "broad-reaching appeal".

Connors has been active over the past decade in helping to revitalize the north end of the city, committing his time to such causes as Family SOS, Leave Out Violence, Stepping Stone and others.

"I think people want to see leadership demonstrated and I've been demonstrating on so many different levels that I'm capable of being a good leader."